IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Those are some of the conclusions drawn from “Emerging Health: Paths for Growth,” published by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 48-page report, based on two separate surveys conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and analyzing 10 nations, indicates developing nations are quicker to accept and adopt telehealth because it’s seen as a way to increase access to healthcare, while developed nations like the United States are being dogged down by regulatory hurdles and a resistance to change among providers.

Authorities and tech developers must stop sensitive health data entered into applications on mobile phones ending up in the wrong hands, experts warn.

As wireless telecom companies gathered in Barcelona this week at the Mobile World Congress, the sector's biggest trade fair, specialists in "e-health" said health care is fast shifting into the connected sphere.

Health Vault, which is a cloud based service, is being offered to patients by some clinics such as the Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle and Denver Health in the US. It allows patients to use the cloud to store and access their health related information – and also allow their medical providers access to the content.

Despite the changes that have taken place in information technology over the past decade, most of the world’s hospitals are still mired in the 20th century.

Records are often kept on paper stored in cardboard files. Crucial X-rays are frequently misplaced. Dangerous drugs are sometimes wrongly prescribed as a result of overworked doctors’ illegible handwriting.

Siksek stated that there is no doubt that eHealth is the emerging practice in public health and information technology at the heart of day-to-day business, but recommended from a regulator’s perspective that the industry change with technological advances.

And doctors will have to mothball millions of dollars worth of new computer equipment as another fallout of the troubled Telehealth scheme.

From January 1, more than eight million people in outer urban and semi-regional areas will be stripped of their Medicare rebate for internet video consultations with medical specialists, as their suburbs and towns are reclassified as "major cities".

Hospitals across India could be on the brink of finding a solution to closing the gap between the quality of healthcare between city dwellers and those residing in India's villages.

Telemedicine, an umbrella term for new technology and techniques that facilitates healthcare diagnosis and treatment remotely, is being hailed by the industry as an answer to ensuring that India's poorer classes have access to the best healthcare possible.

The introduction of a new referral model aims to reduce the workload of the University Clinical Centre of Skopje so that teachers become able to devote more time and attention to scientific and educational work, as well as to more complex health cases.

Bujar Osmani, the country's Minister of Health, attended the launch event at the Clinic for Paediatric Surgery in the capital Skopje. He said that the introduction of the solution constitutes a major step towards creating a fully electronic health system.

Through the application, Mr Osmani explained, a specialist doctor can obtain a patient's complete medical record electronically, with all the historical data covering previous tests and referrals from the family doctor.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu said current health systems were under "huge pressure", they were not sustainable. They needed radical and urgent change if they were to address inequalities and meet the demands of patients into the future.

People had suffered and died living in isolated places. "We now have the power to change this situation", he said in a video address to the national UK health IT conference HC2013.

"Healthcare IT is the instrument that will transform healthcare and it is we–the informaticists, clinicians, management engineers, senior IT executives, IT specialists and the diverse talents of so many others–who will create the applications, processes and workflows that will improve quality, safety, access and cost-efficiency," he said.

The MoLOC is part of an ecosystem Dr. Olla has coined “MoDiSe” – for Mobile Diagnostic Services. “MoDiSe means Shepherd in Southern Africa,” Dr. Olla explained, “which is the perfect metaphor for this new platform as together, using local technology over global wireless networks, we can guide the course of care, saving lives and reducing overall cost through accurate, early detection and appropriate treatment.”

Adam Chilcote, vice president of strategy and business development at Mobile Doctors -- a Dubai-based provider of the 24-7 Physician Helpline Virtual Corporate Clinic and Home Care services -- said there is a potential for telemedicine services in the Kingdom.

"We are planning to introduce the services in Jordan, but first we need to build a network of doctors, hospitals and care centres," Chilcote told The Jordan Times in a recent interview in Dubai.

The spread of the Ebola virus across the continent of Africa was a grave concern for a significant portion of time, but Nigeria was one country where the threat lead to fewer deaths and cases of the medical condition. Even during the worst outbreaks of Ebola, Nigeria suffered 21 cases and eight deaths due to the disease. The Brookings Institution reports that mobile EHR platforms allowed for better patient care and prevention when battling the Ebola virus.

The first step in which mobile health records were used to improve patient care is by training healthcare workers. In particular, it was important to teach medical staff about the Ebola virus and modify some preconceived notions, such as how the virus spreads.

Partners welcome landmark mHealth report from WHO

Eighty-three per cent of governments surveyed report at least one use of mobile phones to support health activities in their country, yet the majority of mHealth activities are limited in size and scope, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report launched today with support from the mHealth Alliance, the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation at the GSMA and mHealth Alliance Mobile Health Summit.

Though still a somewhat loosely defined term, The World Health Organization calls mHealth “an area of electronic health (eHealth)” that is “the provision of health services and information via mobile technologies such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).” Mobile Health Initiative (mHI) founder Peter Waegemann, in speaking at the mHI event in Washington, D.C. this year, said that mHealth “focuses on behavioral and structural changes.” Whereas eHealth is focused on technology to drive the change, “the vision for mHealth includes collecting data through text, images, emails and supporting patient-hood. As more and more connected devices come to market, we expect the definition of mHealth to broaden in scope.

A new report by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals that 40 percent of Americans would pay for a mobile device to keep track of their vital signs and send the data remotely to their doctor.

PwC made the presentation called "Healthcare Unwired" on Sept. 8 at the mHealth Initiative conference in San Diego. The consulting firm also found that the still developing mobile health care industry could be worth $7.7 billion to $43 billion.